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King Louis XIV of France did more than usher in a golden age of art and literature and preside over a dazzling royal court at Versailles in the 17th century. He also introduced the world to the inspector general concept, appointing agents to review his military and report back what they found.

Out with the old; in with the new. It's a common saying at the start of the New Year. In the postal world, however, some old things go out at the end of the year, only to return again in the New Year, like postal reform.

And, of course, some things never go away completely, which is a good thing. For example, we continue to get mail delivery to our doors at least 6 days a week no matter what is happening with the U.S. Postal Service's financial condition.

Pushing the Envelope wishes our readers a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. We will take a break this week, but we encourage you to read over the past year's blogs and let us know what you think on any of the wide range of topics we covered in 2016.

We post comments as they come in, even if you have something to say about a blog that we posted years ago. Indeed, many of our older blogs have been getting new comments, generating new threads of discussion.

Do you have a stockpile of Forever Stamps in a drawer? Isn't it great to know you can use those stamps any time, and they'll be good no matter how much the postage rate may have changed? You can put them on this year's holiday cards, even if you bought the stamps 3 years ago.

On December 8, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman James Bilbray served his final day. The board is now without any independent governors for the first time since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 created the governing body, which operates much like a corporate board providing strategic direction to the Postal Service.

While Postmaster General Megan Brennan and Deputy Postmaster General Ron Stroman serve on the Board of Governors, the board is also made up of nine independent governors appointed by the president and approved by the Senate.

Recent Comments

Thank you for your comments on our 2010 blog. Though we have closed the comment section on this page, the Office of Inspector General is continuously conducting staffing reviews of the Postal Service...

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Latest Audit Asks

The U.S. Postal Service has 100 Flats Sequencing System (FSS) machines nationwide, with 18 in the Capital Metro Area. FSS machines were designed to sort flat-sized mail, which includes large envelopes, newspapers, catalogs, circulars, and magazines, into delivery point sequence (DPS) to...

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We encourage you to visit our blog, which has a new topic for discussion every Monday. You can also give us your thoughts and opinions about upcoming audits on our Audit Asks page. Please refer to our comment policy for further information.